Category Archives: Survival

A young girl (Sophie Nelisse) living with foster parents (Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson) in Nazi Germany begins collecting forbidden books and sharing them with the Jewish refugee hiding in her home in this war drama adapted from Markus Zusak’s book by screenwriter Michael Petroni (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) and director Brian Percival (Downton Abbey).

Liesel Meminger, a young German girl growing up in Nazi Germany, is the star of the show. She’s also the chief book thief in the novel, which is narrated by Death. When Liesel’s foster parents decide to give refuge to a young Jewish man hiding from the Nazi regime, the characters grow and change in horrible and beautiful ways.

Ryuhei Kitamura, director of The Midnight Meat Train, delivers this twisting tale of terror concerning a missing heiress, a gang of vicious bandits, and a vacationing couple who aren’t what they seem.

In the wake of a bloodbath that left 14 students dead, wealthy heiress Emma (Adelaide Clemens) has vanished without a trace. A few months later, a young couple (Luke Evans and Laura Ramsey) cross paths with the ruthless Hoag (Lee Tergesen) and his band of thieves, who run them off of the road in a violent robbery attempt.

When Hoag and his crew learn that the mysterious couple has taken Emma hostage, they assume they’ll be collecting a handsome reward. Little do they realize they’ve just gotten in deep over their heads, and as the body count spikes, the real fight for survival begins.

The Transformers film series continues with this fourth entry from director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg. In the devastating aftermath of the fight for humanity, an enigmatic group strives to alter the course of history as an ancient force of evil plots the destruction of mankind.

In order to defeat it, Optimus Prime (voice of Peter Cullen) and the rest of the Autobots must join forces with a new, resilient band of humans who will fight an epic battle that will determine the fate of the entire human race. Mark Wahlberg and Jack Reynor co-star. After the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons that leveled Chicago, humanity thinks that all alien robots are a threat. So Harold Attinger, a CIA agent, establishes a unit whose sole purpose is to hunt down all of them.

But it turns out that they are aided by another alien robot who is searching for Optimus Prime. Cade Yeager, a “robotics expert”, buys an old truck and upon examining it, he thinks it’s a Transformer. When he powers it up, he discovers it’s Optimus Prime. Later, men from the unit show up looking for Optimus. He helps Yeager and his daughter Tessa escape but are pursued by the hunter.

They escape and Yeager learns from technology he took from the men that a technology magnate and defense contractor named Joshua Joyce is part of what’s going on, so they go to find out what’s going on.

My Rating : 4.5/5 STARSMovieStudio Quote>>“The story was kind of predictive, but what wasn’t was absolutely the performances by Shailene and Ansel!”

Based on the bestselling novel by author John Green, the romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars tells the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort), who fall hopelessly in love after meeting in a cancer support group, and experience a whirlwind romance that teaches them both what it means to feel truly alive. Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe co-star.

Hazel and Augustus are two teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them on a journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that Hazel’s other constant companion is an oxygen tank, Gus jokes about his prosthetic leg, and they meet and fall in love at a cancer support group.

My Rating : 3/5 STARSMovieStudio Quote>>“I loved the animation and how the writers altered the story to fit into this age!”

A teenage boy raised by gorillas in Africa falls for a pretty conservationist following a chance meeting in the jungle, but finds their romance threatened by a menacing Silverback, and a scheming capitalist in search of a new energy source in this animated adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic tale. John Greystoke, Jr. was just a toddler when he accompanied his adventurous mother and father on a journey into Africa in search of a mineral that could revolutionize the energy industry.

That trip turns tragic, however, when their helicopter crashes in a race to escape a massive storm, leaving young John the sole survivor. Raised from that day forward by a motherly gorilla named Kala, the boy, now named Tarzan, quickly integrates into the family of primates. But alpha male Silverback Tablat refuses to accept Tarzan’s presence, viewing him as a direct threat to the clan.

Nearly a decade later, Tarzan encounters beautiful Jane Porter, and begins to long for human contact. When Jane returns to the jungle accompanied by smooth-talking entrepreneur William Clayton a few years later, her relationship with Tarzan is rekindled. But while Clayton has ostensibly come to the jungle to support Jane’s conservationist endeavors, he’s actually searching for the very same energy source once sought by Tarzan’s father, and hopes to turn a tidy profit by exploiting the precious resource.

The situation turns critical when Jane recognizes Clayton’s true intentions, and the only one who can save her from both the villainous industrialist and the menacing Tablat is the noble Tarzan of the apes.

David Ayer’s Sabotage stars Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Breacher, the veteran DEA agent in charge of a fearless squad. After effectively hiding 10 million in drug money during an epic bust, their plan falls apart when they return to discover that someone has swiped the cash.

As the incident gets investigated, everyone is suspended from duty. After authorities fail to bring any charges, Breacher starts retraining the group which has grown rusty and distrustful of each other during the long layoff. Soon, members of Breacher’s crew start dying in gruesome fashion. He gets close to Caroline Brentwood (Olivia Williams) the investigator put in charge of the case.

Caroline eventually learns about a dark secret from Breacher’s past. Soon the remaining members of the crew realize that one of them is responsible for the murders, and that same person probably has the cash as well.

My Rating : 3.5/5 STARSMovieStudio Quote>>“Cooper and Jackson takes the killer tension in balance till the end, where it then gets a little cheesy!”

A hotshot district attorney finds himself at the mercy of a cunning serial killer in this twisting crime thriller starring Dominic Cooper and Samuel L. Jackson. Ambitious DA Mitch Brockden (Cooper) is on the fast track to success when, driving home one frigid winter night, he accidentally runs down a man who dashes into the street.

In a panic, Brockden flees the scene. Meanwhile, accused criminal Clinton Davis (Jackson) faces 20 years to life after being found with the body. When the case goes to trial, Brockden’s nagging conscience drives him to acquit Davis, who has claimed innocence from the very beginning.

But mounting evidence indicates that Davis may still harbor a dark secret, and when Brockden uncovers that secret he finds his life turned upside down, and his family in mortal danger.

In a world where the population is divided into factions by personality types, Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) is classified as Divergent. When she uncovers a conspiracy to eliminate all Divergents, she teams with the mysterious Four (Theo James) to find out what makes the powers-that-be so frightened of them. Kate Winslet also stars in this action thriller adapted from the novel by Veronica Roth, and directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist, Limitless).

Set in a futuristic dystopia where society is divided into five factions that each represent a different virtue, sixteen-year-old have to decide if they want to stay in their faction or switch to another – for the rest of their lives. Beatrice Prior makes a choice that surprises everyone. Then Tris and her fellow faction-members have to live through a highly competitive initiation process to live out the choice they have made.

They must undergo extreme physical and intense psychological tests, that transform the mall. But Tris has a secret she`s kept hidden,because if anyone knew, it would mean a certain death. As she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, this secret might help her save the people she loves… or it might destroy her.

Young Army Reserve enlistee Jack Farmer (Luke Moran) experiences an intense crisis of conscience after becoming a prison guard at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, where his commanding officer (Sean Astin) coerces him into using intense interrogation techniques on a terrified detainee (Omid Abtahi) who appears to have committed no crime.

Before long, the soldier who joined the military to defend his country begins to unravel due to the inhuman treatment he witnesses in a daily basis. The film has a very good idea in using a single soldier’s perspective to explore how tension and boredom can lead to such extreme misconduct, but it doesn’t go far enough, in the end leaving a disgraceful chapter just dimly illuminated in psychological terms.

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his band of aging mercenaries recruit a younger crew to battle the one man capable of exterminating the Expendables in this sequel directed by Red Hill’s Patrick Hughes. When Barney and Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) co-founded the Expendables, they were positively unstoppable.

Years later, Stonebanks abandoned the team to become a cutthroat arms dealer, and Barney was forced to kill the man he once called a brother. Little did Barney realize that Stonebanks survived, and has been biding his time for revenge ever since. Now the war has begun. Stonebanks is out for blood, and the only way Barney can defeat him is with the help of some tech-savvy new recruits.